NL's Henry wins FC championship race

NEW LONDON — Senior Valery Henry won the Firelands Conference cross country championship race on her home course Saturday at New London High School. Henry finished in 20:09.39, which was comfortably ahead of Crestview's Emmie Kemp (20:17.99). Her teammate, sophomore Hailey Crocket, was third overall in 20:45.44. In the team standings, Crestview won the FC title with 30 points. St. Paul was second with 45, followed by New London (67), Mapleton (84), and South Central (120). Kate Ware was St. Paul's highest finisher. The junior was seventh in 21:25.95. The Flyers then had four runners within five spots of each other just outside the top 10. Jenny Schwan (22:09.12) was 10th and Deanna Vazquez (22:16.66) was 11th, while Frances Donnelly (22:56.75) was 13th and Anna Wright (23:15.84) was 14th. Scarlett Ross (24:17.11) in 22nd and Charlotte Hosack (25:24.35) in 28th rounded out the St. Paul scoring. After Henry and Crocket, New London's Lydia Geist was 16th in 23:22.51 and Paiton Shepherd (25:37.85) was 30th. Other top area finishers included Monroeville's Kenley Schafer (21:46.91) in eighth and Western Reserve's Kara Woodruff (21:57.78) in ninth. Allyson Goebbel (23:20.11) was also 15th for the Roughriders. Plymouth's Audrey Smith (22:18.19) was 12th and Kristi Yeager (24:14.04) was 21st for the Big Red. For South Central, Adelynn Smith (24:49.04) was 25th and Ady Stevens (24:57.65) was 26th. In the boys race, Crestview also won the team title with 37 points. Mapleton was second with 52 points, and was followed by New London (59), Western (88), Plymouth (147), and St. Paul (149). Host New London had two runners among the top six. Sophomore Carter Hicks was second overall in 16:57.88 behind race winner Isaac McFarland (16:44.5) from Crestview. New London junior Ryan Twining was sixth in 17:42.24. Also for the 'Cats, Kaden McMaster (18:37.45) was 11th and Jaxson Schaffer (18:53.87) was 13th. Western Reserve's Brice Caudill (17:42.58) was seventh and Jax Dalton (18:40.05) was 12th. Levi Wolf (19:08.76) was also 16th for the Roughriders. For St. Paul, Jacob Collins (19:12.32) was 19th and Tanner Denman (20:21.06) was 27th. Plymouth's Carter Jester (19:32.06) was 21st and Weston Smith (19:57.25) finished 23rd. South Central's Izaak Ross (20:18.2) was 26th and Monroeville's Paul Demarco (21:28.29) was 34th. New this season is a fourth division in the OHSAA state cross country tournament. Area FC teams will head to the Division IV Galion district with races at 10 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. on Saturday (Oct. 18) at the Amann Reservoir Park.